


Keeping warm

by CannibaLilly



Series: Physiological Differences [6]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Cold Weather, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-15
Updated: 2014-02-15
Packaged: 2018-01-12 12:53:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1186425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CannibaLilly/pseuds/CannibaLilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of one-shots about the differences in human and Time Lord physiology.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keeping warm

**Author's Note:**

> This will make more sense once you've read the first Parts of this series!
> 
> This part wasn’t even supposed to be in here, but I felt like the Doctor and Donna really deserve some proper aftermath/solution for their ginger beer misery… You know I’m no good at writing conversations which should solve “emotional” problems *ick!* but, well, see what you can make of it~

The Doctor woke up because something or someone was trying to kill him from within his skull. He had no idea what kind of villain this was or what he wanted from the Time Lord, but no matter which planet he tried to conquer, it was all his! Oh for Rassilon’s sake, the Doctor just hoped he would kill him soon before the pain would drive him mad.  
It took him some agonising moments to figure that no alien had wound its way into his head for means of torture but that he was simply hung over.

Ohw, no, there was nothing “simple” about this hangover. He growled as he realised there was no merciful death in reach and rolled to his side.  
Bed. He was lying in a bed, considering the feeling it was his own. He didn’t dare to open his eyes though.

 _“Can I help you to make it better?”_ the TARDIS asked in his mind but the Doctor simply escaped further down under the sheets. _“Please don’t come in here again,”_ he whimpered mentally. His head already felt as if it was about to burst. It certainly couldn’t take another presence.

He tried to find a comfortable position in which neither his head nor his stomach rebelled against him so he could die in peace, but it wasn’t until he found an especially soft pillow to rest his head on that he could lie still. It probably came from the TARDIS because he couldn’t remember owning such a nice cushion. It was soft, pleasantly warm and smelled remotely like vanilla. He snuggled deeper into it and sent a silent _“Thank you,”_ to his old girl. She took respect on his plead and didn’t answer.

He let out another tormented growl, because it seemed to ease the pain when he made himself heard, but he hadn’t expected to get an answer. A soft sigh came from the pillow he’d buried himself in and, even though the sound wasn’t unpleasant, it seemed slightly odd for a pillow to sigh at all.

Or stir.

He was still determined to keep his eyes shut, even as he felt the pillow wriggle and turn in his hug until a drowsy, very un-pillow-like voice mumbled: “Morning, sunshine.”  
“D-Donna?” he asked very faintly.  
“Hm-hm,” she mumbled.  
The Doctor felt his hearts skip a beat. A hangover. Donna in his bed. No memory of the past hours.  
Death seemed to become more and more merciful.

“W-why are you here?” he stuttered.  
“You asked me to.”  
Right. Great. Except that he had still no idea what the hell had happened.  
Finally the Doctor opened his eyes to look at his companion. Her bright red hair laid spread out on his white pillow. Then she gave him a very tired smile and for a moment an image of a crying Donna popped into his head. He had no idea where it came from, but she wore the same smile… something buzzed through his body together with the image.

 _Get a grip! Find out what happened or things are going to get really complicated!_ He snapped himself out of it.

“A little more information would be wonderful.”  
“You got drunk and don’t ask me why, because you never told me.” Donna started explaining with a yawn. “I found you searching for Peter Vincent and tried to help you, but we couldn’t find him anywhere. You puked on my shirt and trousers and… well pretty much everything nearby. Oh, and you almost killed me with a DVD! I mustn’t forget that, because it sounds pretty hilarious. That’s basically everything that happened. Then I got you to bed and changed you into your pyjamas - don’t worry, I didn’t peek – but you didn’t take a shower, because I was worried you might drown, so you still have to do that on your own.”

This didn’t sound too horrible. Fine, not great either but at least he hadn’t done something stupid that would make everything complicated like getting physical with Donna!... That was a good thing, he reckoned.

“And then… you spent the night here?”  
“I told you, you wouldn’t let me go!” Donna justified with a light blush and pulled the blanket up to her chin. “After I’d told you, you might drown in your shower you refused to stay here alone so close to it, eventually I gave in. Sorry, if you’re uncomfortable about it I can just lea-“  
“No!” he protested quickly and after he realised how firm he’d sounded, he added somewhat softer: “No, I appreciate you were looking after me while I was being impossible.”  
“Nah, you were… challenging, that’s everything. Don’t worry about it.”

This was nice of her. Very nice actually… He didn’t even get a normal blow to the arm even though he certainly deserved one. It made him feel quite uneasy that Donna was suddenly so scarily understanding.

“So… that’s everything? There’s nothing else I did? Something I need to feel sorry for, I mean.”  
Donna put on a mock-thoughtful look. To him it seemed more as if she was just trying to escape a serious answer though.  
“Let’s see. Getting senselessly drunk, hitting my head and puking all over me. No, I guess that’s all. Why? Did you plan something more?”

“No. Sorry for all that,” he replied sheepishly and tried to ignore the unsettling feeling of something else he’d done. Something worse…

“Apology accepted. What do you think about getting up now? I need a shower and, seriously, so do you. Then you could finally fly me to that beach you keep promising me, so I can really forgive you,” Donna proposed and slipped out of the bed. He frowned at her for a second; she was wearing nothing but a skinny shirt that merely covered everything… that needed covering, but then he remembered he’d ruined her clothes last night.

He hesitated to answer her. A beach would be hot and dazzling and everything he wanted was his bed, darkness and maybe a bit more of that cuddling with Donna against the hangover, but then she certainly deserved some hiatus after the horrible night he’d brought her.

“That’s a deal,” he agreed.  
Donna nodded, scurrying out of the room without another word. The vague desire to reach out to grab her arm and pull her back hit him but he led it ebb away, as usual. He probably smelled like an old bar, he couldn’t blame her for escaping this bed as soon as possible.  
Slowly he rolled out of his bed and stumbled into the bathroom.

Guilt, hurt pride, a bit more self hatred than usual. Of course, headache and nausea could never be the only punishment for getting wasted on ginger beer.  
Well, at least he didn’t look as rubbish as the bloke who stared at him from within the mirror. His hair was sticking up into all directions, his skin was unhealthily pale and his eyes bloodshot. The poor chap.  
Groggily the Doctor swallowed some pain pills and turned the shower on.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

“Beach, Spaceman,” Donna stressed. “I said _beach_.” She stood in front of the Doctor in a light summer dress, wearing just her swimsuit beneath it and frowned at the big, fluffy coat he held out for her to wear.

“And a beach it is, a really beautiful one by the way, but the weather is kind of… moody here, so wear this over your dress.” The Doctor handed Donna the coat. He looked a little better than before, still tired but all in all healthy. Donna eyed him up suspiciously.

“Just in case,” he added. The Doctor himself held a fluffy coat in his arms, Donna couldn’t imagine him wearing that monstrous brown thing over his swimming trunks. It was just too big and too fluffy, just like Donna’s. It seemed as if he’d bought them together; a set of matching coats, this was probably cute but Donna’s attention was somewhere else.

“’Moody’?” she repeated. “As in: it’s rainy one day and the next it’s sunny?” Somehow she doubted whether it’d be that easy.  
“Well, err… no, not really. More like in, it’s really really hot at daytime and really really cold at night-time.” When he recognised Donna’s quizzical look he added: “it’s the most beautiful weather to go for a swim as long as the sun’s up, I promise. We just have to leave before dawn.”

With a final sigh, Donna gave in and stuffed the coat into her bag.  
“Alright, but we better _are_ back before the weather changes,” she warned but her glare only lasted so long. She was looking forward to a day on the beach. She needed some distraction and she needed it _now_. Thoughts were praying on the back of her mind she didn’t want to start thinking about. Thoughts about last night, about the two of them and how she’d allowed everything to go too far-

“Donna, are you ready?” the Doctor asked and Donna recognised that he was already standing by the door, waiting for her. Pulling herself together she fetched her bag for the beach and joined him.  
Yes, she needed this day out of the TARDIS. In here she’d only keep brooding and in the end she’d burst out with a confession that had no room between the two of them.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

She should have known. Maybe she had known, but didn’t want to admit it. Maybe she’d just been naive believing they could ever make it back to the TARDIS before any kind of deadline.  
The blazing sun fought hard against dawn, but slowly it drowned behind the horizon and with every passing minute the temperature fell.

She glared at the back of the Doctor’s head as they were walking back to the TARDIS, knowing he wasn’t to blame, not really. The octopus people had needed their help and she hadn’t hesitated a moment to follow the Doctor, but all this time a tiny, delicate, pinkish part of her mind had believed they would make it back in time.

Donna shivered and pulled the fluffy coat tighter. She sent a silent thank you to the past Doctor for talking her into wearing this.  
“How far is it still?” she asked, raising her voice so the Doctor would hear it through the upcoming wind that blew icily in her face.  
“Two miles, maybe three,” he replied and Donna’s stomach convulsed. The sun was gone now and within seconds twinkling stars appeared. The nights on this planet were short, but so were the days.

The Doctor turned around to Donna with a worried expression.  
“Can you go that far?” he asked.  
“If I have to,” she said, sounding much more confident than she felt.  
He nodded and reached his hand out for her to grab but for some reason she couldn’t. She stared at it, as if it was some kind of poisonous animal he’d asked her to hold. Fast she hid her hands in the pockets of her coat.  
“It’s getting really cold,” she mumbled and started walking again. After a second of confusion the Doctor followed her, not questioning her behaviour for which she was more than grateful.

 

About half an hour later, Donna had to learn that she would not make it just because of mere stubbornness. The former green heels around the beach were now covered in a thick layer of frost that crunched beneath their feet with every step. The real problem for Donna was the wind though. Mercilessly it blew every kind of remaining warmth off her, and by now she was positive her nose had frozen off.  
With stiff fingers she tried to pull the hood of her coat deeper into her face and failed, the frost-shattered fabric kept escaping her fingers.

After a few tries the Doctor must have recognised her struggle, he turned and fixed Donna’s hood for her. She watched his eyes that were fixed on the strap of her coat, they were so different from last night, focused and bright and for a second she wondered whether a kiss now, while he was sober, would bring the expression back she’d seen that night-  
 _Oh, God make him hurry up!_ She silently prayed. _Before I do something really stupid!_

“I think I’ve seen a cave over there,” the Doctor told her as soon he was done and Donna’s heart stopped racing and sank instead. She shook her head; the last thing she wanted was to spend any longer out here than necessary.  
“We are going there, Donna, you’re freezing and I want to get you out of the wind. Don’t even try to argue!”  
She really just wanted to go back to the warm ship, but the look on the Doctor’s face told her she wouldn’t win this.

Reluctantly she gave him a short nod and together they hurried up the hill towards the place where the Doctor believed to have seen a cave. On her way Donna slipped on the icy ground and fell face-first onto the frozen grass. Her arms seemed too stiff to even try and cushion her fall. It took all her strength to push herself back up on her knees while she just wanted to lie there and sob like a child.  
Instantly the Doctor was at her side and gently, as if he feared she might shatter every second, pulled her up. Just then Donna recognised that his hands were warm, compared to the rest of this bloody ice-world. For the last yards she held onto him with a death-grip.

 

The second they reached the gap in the rock the wind was gone and Donna felt better right away. Sure, it was still freezing cold in there, but at least this goddamn wind was gone.  
Beyond exhaustion, she slid down at the wall of the cave and tried to warm her face up with her hands, or maybe vice versa, she had no idea. It wasn’t working anyway, there was no warmth left in her that could have spread.  
After a few moments she gave up. It didn’t matter; nothing mattered now that she finally had escaped this horrible wind. She leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes.

“Donna!” the Doctor shook her shoulder and she almost missed his earlier over-caution. “Don’t scare me like that!”  
“I was just resting,” Donna griped, at least she tried to, her fear and exhaustion resonated in her voice and made it sound all whiny.  
“You were falling asleep and you know how dangerous that is,” the Doctor warned and crouched down next to her. His eyes scanned her, as if he was trying to measure the level of her hypothermia.

“I can’t light a fire, there’s nothing here I could burn,” he explained to her and Donna suddenly hated their past selves for not taking anything inflammable with them.  
“It’s okay, I just need a moment to warm up, then-“  
“No,” the Doctor interrupted her firmly and searched his pockets as if he hoped he would find something to make a fire with in there. Well, Donna might have believed he would find something if he’d been wearing his normal coat, but the pockets of this fluffy one were all but empty.  
“The temperature’s still falling and we have about a mile to go.”

Donna gulped. It was still getting colder and they still had so far to walk. Tears sprang to her eyes before she could do something about it. She’d reached her limit and had no idea how to take just another step out there, let alone a solid mile.  
“No, don’t cry, we’ll be fine, you know we will,” the Doctor soothed her and cupped her face with his hands. Donna had no idea how this was possible but they were warm, actually and really warm. It wasn’t just compared to the freezing temperature around; they felt as warm as they always did.

“I don’t think I can walk that far,” she mumbled and sniffed her numb nose.  
“Of course not! I’m not letting you go out there again, we’ll spent the night here and tomorrow, when the sun’s up, we’ll simply walk back to the TARDIS,” he gave her an encouraging smile and Donna smiled back, closing her eyes and enjoying his warmth for a moment. It was a wonderful feeling that made her stomach loop and reminded her so much of-

She had no idea where the power for that came from, but suddenly she pulled her face out of his touch and slide away from him. Bewildered by her reaction the Doctor blinked at her, his hands still raised to where Donna’s face had been a split second ago.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.  
“Nothing!” she replied harsher than she’d wanted and added and apologetic look, unable to find the right words. The questioning expression on his face changed to a resigning one.  
“Fine.” He averted his eyes and sat back against the stone wall, too, leaving enough room for a third person between the two of them.

Donna coiled herself up against the cold and rested her face against her shivering legs. It wasn’t bad enough that she’d made use of him while he was drunk and vulnerable, no, she had to keep thinking about it all day long like some kind of pervert. She couldn’t have him know it and the only way to do that was too keep the distance between them.

Donna squeezed her eyes shut. She hated distance between them, almost as much as she hated this coldness. By now she felt even too stiff to shiver anymore, her whole body was frozen and slowly this seemed to rub off on her mind. She wanted her own bed, this was the only thought that made any sense before she faded off into the dark…

“Hey! Donna, hey, wake up!”  
Donna startled and slowly opened her eyes. Heavy lidded she blinked at the Doctor.  
“You can’t sleep now,” he stated slowly but firmly. “Do you hear me? Stay awake!”

Had she fallen asleep? It didn’t feel like it, she was still tired and her position wasn’t exactly comfortable, but right now she didn’t mind. She really just wanted to sleep…

“ _ **Donna**_!!” he yelled as her eye closed again. He could be really loud if he wanted to. “Listen, I know you’re tired but if you fall asleep your muscles will stop working, your whole body stops keeping you warm and if that happens I won’t be able to help you!”

Ugh, Donna knew he was right, she’d seen enough melodramatic snow-storm movies to know she had to stay awake, but no-one had ever told her she would feel that tired before freezing to death.  
“Can you stand up?” he asked. “If you walk about for a bit, maybe-“  
Donna shook her head before he finished the sentence. She could hardly move her fingers, how was she supposed to move her whole body?

Anxiously the Doctor scanned the cave with his eyes, rotating as he did so, trying to think of a way to keep her warm but with a final spin he gave up on finding something in this abandoned hole and sat down next to Donna. He opened his arms for her.  
Donna blinked suspiciously at him.

“I’m warmer than you; you recognised that, right?” he asked.  
“I thought Time Lords did have a _lower_ body temperature,” Donna mumbled.  
“Right, that’s why the weather didn’t affect me as much as you,” he explained. “I could save my warmth up and I don’t need much of it anyway,” he slid closer to her. “Come here.”  
Finally it dawned on Donna what he was about to do and she backed off, still pressing her back against the wall. A hug was pretty much the opposite of the distance she needed!

“No thanks, I can manage,” Donna told him fast.  
The Doctor frowned at her.  
“You’re freezing, Donna!”  
“Well, duh! It’s pretty cold, but that’s no reason to-,” she didn’t finish the sentence, instead she just gestured at his still open arms.  
They watched each other, Donna nervous and the Doctor slowly losing his patience.  
“What is the problem?” he asked and lowered his arms. Donna could hear he wasn’t about to accept cheap excuses anymore… Unfortunately those were the only ones she had. She didn’t answer; she couldn’t even look at him.

“Is it me?” he questioned. “Did I do something to offend you?”  
“No, ‘course you didn’t,” she mumbled.  
“What else is it? Are you scared of me? Disgusted with me? I took a shower and I usually never puke, unle-“  
“No! No, that’s not even close, it’s…” Desperate to find the right words, Donna rubbed her hand over her forehead just to recognise it was numb.  
“What?!” he pressed.

She took a deep, ice-cold breath, trying to calm herself.  
“It’s nothing, I just- We hug quite often, did you notice that? Maybe I’m just... spent.”  
“Oh, I didn’t… Sorry, I had no idea it’s that annoying for you” he mumbled, putting that look on she’d last seen on his face when she’d told him she wouldn’t join him on his travels. She hated seeing him like that. What was the use of keeping the truth from him if her lies hurt him just as much?!  
“No, that’s not it,” she admitted quietly and a part of her hoped the Doctor wouldn’t hear her. Of course he did.

“Huh?”  
“Err I don’t think it’s even possible, you know? Feeling spent about hugs… It’s not like it’s exhausting - hugging I mean,” she stuttered.  
 _What are you talking about?!_ A voice inside her asked, shocked. Why did her mouth only come up with rubbish when she was trying to talk to someone about her feelings?  
“What else is it? What could be so horrible that you can’t tell me?” the Doctor wanted to know, his dark eyes boring into Donna and for the first time she couldn’t reply his look because she felt too ashamed of herself. This was it, he’d never forgive her. How would he react once he knew? He’d throw her out, that much was sure, but would he even bother to stop in Chiswick? He could just as well leave her here…

Nonsense! He never would abandon her at a place like that, he was her friend.  
Donna clenched her fists. Right, he was her friend and he deserved to know the truth. Her punishment would be his decision and she would accept it.

“Something’s happened last night,” she said, actually she whispered it. “I did something and I didn’t know how to tell you.”  
The Doctor tilted his head and his angry expression vanished.  
“What did you do?” he asked so gentle that Donna felt a lump blocking her throat. She turned her head toward the Doctor and tears rolled down her cheeks.  
“I’m sorry, I really am,” she wept. “It happened so fast and I should have stopped you, I know I should but-”

Her apology faded into a sobbing that was muffled by the Doctor wrapping his arms around her. Donna didn’t push him away this time, she just buried her face into this big, fluffy coat until she found his chest. God, he hadn’t lied, he was toasty. She just wanted him to keep holding her like that in his warm, soothing embrace but she knew she couldn’t. She didn’t deserve it and he needed to know.

She fought her way back to look at him with wet eyes.  
“We kissed,” she told him as brave as she could with a dying sob cracking up her voice.  
A beat of silence followed her words in which Donna felt first relief and then panic hitting her. Relief because it was _finally_ out and panic because it was finally _out_.  
“Say something!” she begged him after another moment of agonising silence.

“So… that’s it? Is there nothing more about to come?” he asked, genuine confusion on his face.  
“More?” Donna exclaimed. “This has been on my mind all day long! In the TARDIS, with the octopus people, in the storm! What more do you want?!”  
“Exactly! You were all weird today and I thought there was something more to it then just this kiss. You can’t blame me for being a little nervous about it! After this moment my memory fades to black and we woke up in the same bed after all. I thought you were about to tell me we did something really silly.”

Donna gaped at him.  
“You remember it?! I was freaking out about this for hours and you just remember it!?” she swatted at his arm and regretted it right away because her frozen hand started hurting even more.  
“Sorry, but you never told me it freaks you out… I’m still not sure if I get this. Why do you feel sorry for it? At least it was me kissing you, not the other way round.”  
“I should have prevented it! You were vulnerable and I should have protected you, not-”  
The Doctor suddenly started chuckling and interrupted Donna. She hit him again, despite the agony in her hand.

“Stop laughing at me! I was really scared you’d be angry with me!”  
“Sorry,” he replied, still smiling like she’d told him a joke. “But I wasn’t vulnerable, Donna. I was drunk and daft and crossed a line - if there’s someone who needed protection it was you.” Somewhere along this sentence his expression changed from a smile into a bitter frown that made Donna want to hug him again, not only because he was nicely warm.  
“It’s not like you’d have harmed me,” she replied quietly.  
“Oh, no?” he asked. “I crossed one line, who knows if I didn’t go farther? What I remembered was just a quick peck, but if it keeps troubling you like that… That’s why I hate this ginger beer! You just can’t get rid of it.”

Donna tried to curl her frozen lips into a smile and softly rested her palm against his cheek.  
“I’ve no idea what you remember, but the Doctor I spent last night with was no harm to anyone. He was a little silly but very nice to me. And the kiss… actually it was hardly more than a peck.”

The Time Lord didn’t look completely convinced but at least this self-loathing frown vanished from his face.  
“Are you sure?” he asked.  
“Positive, I was just panicking because I felt guilty. Thinking about it, I’m not even sure if there was any line-crossing involved. It was probably just a friend-kiss.”  
“There are things like ‘friend-kisses’?” he wondered and took Donna’s icy hands in his. Slowly he raised them to his mouth to breath some warmth upon them.

“S’pose so,” Donna mumbled, distracted by the sensation of her hands coming back to life. Somehow the warmth found a way from her hands to her face. “My best friend and I used to kiss when we were teenagers, especially when one of us was drunk, but we never went any further. It’s just a way to be close to a good mate.”  
“We’re _best_ mates,” he pointed out, holding Donna’s hands close to his face.  
“We are,” she agreed a little light-headed with the heat that had found its way back into her. The Doctor pressed his lips briefly to Donna’s hands and smiled, a mixture of mischievousness and caution about Donna’s reaction were playing about his lips.  
“Does it work like that?” he asked when Donna made no attempts to pull her hands away. “Those friend-kisses.”

Donna felt that her mouth was suddenly very dry. She was sure the Doctor was just being curious as always, eager to learn something new. The fact that her motives weren’t all that innocent should be no reason for her to deny him this experience.  
“Not really,” she moved closer to him and faintly recognised that the warmth he was sending out surrounded him like an aura. “It’s more a like a normal kiss, just… less.”

She saw him silently wondering if he could dare to try it and Donna hoped he wouldn’t sense her anticipation. After a moment that seemed to last the whole damn night he finally close the distance between them and brushed his lips over hers.  
A shy heartbeat, hardly enough to remind her of last night, then he pulled back.

“Like that?” he asked.  
“Uh-hu,” Donna nodded flustered, craving more but not ready to admit it. “That’s it.”  
Their eyes met and Donna pressed her lips tightly together in order to lock the longing sigh in that was stuck in her throat. God, something _was_ wrong with her, but who cared? He wasn’t angry with her after all.

“I’m glad we could clear everything up,” the Doctor told her. “I hate fighting with you.”  
“Same here, Spaceman,” she agreed and recognised that she was truly happy about it. Despite all those nagging emotions swirling around in her, she was glad to have her best mate back.  
They settled back against the stone wall and this time when he offered her a hug she happily accepted it. It felt like cuddling with a Doctor-sized hot-water bottle and she sighed blissfully as her body slowly started warming up again.

“…this best friend you mentioned,” he started out of the blue. “Was it a boy or a girl?”  
“A girl,” Donna glanced up at him. “Why?” Something strange lay in his gaze and she rolled her eyes with a silent giggle.  
“You can be such a typical bloke at times!” Donna would never understand what men liked so much about snogging women.  
“That’s not it,” he objected with the hint of red on his face. “I was just wondering why I don’t know her, if she’s your best friend and all that.”  
“That was at school, Doctor. We don’t see each other anymore… somehow we just lost contact.”  
“She’s not your best friend if you lose contact to her,” he mumbled and finally Donna got what was troubling him.

“We’re different,” Donna soothed him. “We won’t just stop talking to each other because we found better people to spent time with.”  
“I can’t think of anyone better,” he said and, to Donna’s surprised, leaned in to kiss her. It was another of these super short torture kisses, but when he pulled away Donna found him smiling. At least she’d managed to cheer him up.

“I’m really getting the hang of this,” he said proudly and held his face so close to hers that she felt his breath on her skin while he spoke.  
“You’re a natural,” she wanted to said but half of the sentence was muffled by his lips on hers again. He held still for longer this time and then hesitantly nipped her bottom lip, drawing a whimper from her before releasing her again. This time he didn’t wait for her to say anything, the look they shared was enough to clear things up.  
He claimed her mouth again. She parted her lips for his tongue to find hers while her hand raised to his neck to find something to hold onto.

With the storm blazing outside, the Doctor and Donna had no need to worry about getting too cold. Neither of them let go before they were pretty much out of breath. Panting Donna snuggled herself close to him and the Doctor wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close. She could hear his twin hearts out-beating each other in his chest and smiled.  
“I’m just glad we didn’t cross a line,” he said a little short of breath. Donna could almost hear the grin on his face and couldn’t help but giggle.

“No. What line? We’re best friends and we, err, how did I put it?”  
“Want to be ‘close to each other’?”  
“Exactly! There’s nothing wrong with that.”  
“We can keep doing that?” the Doctor asked softly.  
“Sure, as long as we do it as friends.”  
They exchanged a smile before Donna lay back and slowly let her eyes close. With him and his warmth she could safely fall asleep, he really was her best mate and as long as this wouldn’t change there was no reason to struggle with complicated feelings.


End file.
